Um thank you for coming.

We have the bond vote coming up shortly on November 4th.

There is early voting available.

So we thought we'd take this opportunity to have a presentation, a quick kind of webinar about what the vote is about.

Two different topics today, but I'm gonna start things off with the TIFF bond vote for Stevens Branch apartments and infrastructure, and then turn it over to Carol and Nicholas for the second bond vote item.

But this is being recorded, so then others can possibly watch if they have questions too, and kind of try to keep it as concise as we can, but also answer questions if anyone has one.

And this is you know your way of staying informed and getting ready for this special election because there is um this is out of our usual election cycle.

So we like to make sure everyone's got the right information.

So we're asking voters to consider this item for infrastructure to support a housing project.

The housing project is located on Seminary Street.

It is currently a vacant parking lot, and it would be converted into 31 units of affordable housing run by Down Street with parking on site, and the infrastructure that the city would provide would be to upgrade the uh water and sewer power streetscape along Seminary Street.

Really creating some connectivity between Summer Street and North Maine, also upgrading the parking lot behind the Campbell lot that would be upgraded to have more circulating better circulation and increased green space.

And that would be the new uh really it's existing public parking, but it would be where we would direct public parking more frequently given that the public parking where there is current this building is currently planned will no longer exist.

So this is an improvement to the to the area.

I could show a picture here of the infrastructure that we were just I was just explaining.

So you've got seminary street here, Main Street is here, and so this upgrade with um more streetscape connectivity sidewalk that will kind of enhance this little corridor and also bring the pedestrians into downtown from the downstreet project, and then they have their project, which has um permits and is um uh run by Down Street, but with Ever North as well.

And then this is the Campbell parking lot currently accessed off of West Street and will be enhanced green space as well as circulation improved circulation and um wayfinding.

So hopefully easier to navigate parking area, easier to locate, and then uh a better connectivity over here.

And so that's the kind of work that this kind of program does, which is to support the creation of housing and other types of economic development uses that the city wants to see by investing in infrastructure.

So this is the city's ability to help get what it wants into the downtown by without ever taxing the taxpayer.

So this is called TIFF tax increment financing, and it means that the city can then invest, use a municipal bond to invest in the infrastructure, build all of those different things we just talked about, and use the resulting tax increment, the resulting new taxes that are created by the housing project and put those into a fund that pays down the debt service.

And so the debt service then is paid for not on tax dollars, not out of the general fund, but out of this TIFF fund.

Carol, could you speak a little bit about our existing TIFF district and the um fund that we have currently?

And um City of Barrie has had a TIFF district from since uh 2012.

Um when you develop a TIFF plan, it has to be it gets presented to the state to the Vermont Economic Progress Council, and they have to approve it.

There's a limited number of TIFF districts in the state.

Um we were lucky enough to have one of them on the original TIFF district that was developed over 10 years ago, uh had a focus on parking enhancements because we were doing the TIFF district in support of the um downtown development that included city place, the rehabbing of lantern block, uh the summer street housing and some other projects uh in the downtown.

Uh and the need was for parking.

So that's what the original TIFF district um was used for.

Um about four years ago, we started reviewing where the TIF district is on as far as what the needs are, and we realized that things had swung to uh a need not only in very city but statewide for housing.

Uh and so we looked at what there were uh for potential housing development options, uh, and that's how we ended up where we are here.

Um, in the meantime, uh the 223 parcels that are currently in the TIFF district, uh they um any property that has had an increase in value uh during the life of the TIFF since 2013 has uh created increment um uh value taxable value above the base value that was set at the beginning of the district.

Uh and those uh increment funds have been um deposited into a TIFF increment account uh which is used to pay our debt service.

Um we did a 2.2 million dollar bond back in 2013, which covered the parking improvements, so we're making debt payments out of that with the with the increment funds.

Um because our TIF district has been in existence for over 10 years.

Uh we're considered a mature TIF district, and we have a healthy balance in our TIFF increment fund right now of uh about close to a million dollars.

Um so we have uh available funds to cover debt service for this new project moving forward, uh, in addition to increment that is generated by this project and other projects that are coming along uh in this particular TIFF district.

The TIFF district is um essentially the downtown from City Hall Park to uh Route 62 where it comes down from the hospital, and then from the uh Stevens Branch River to Summer Street and both sides of Summer Street are included.

So uh there is a map on the city website.

There's a whole section on this vote on the city website, uh including a bunch of different documents, um, and one of them is a map of the district so you can see what what area is actually included.

Great.

Thank you, Carol.

And so what we're asking, and what we're we're letting folks know is that there's a vote on November 4th.

There's two other things to vote on.

There's two ballots.

One ballot will have this item on it, as well as the garage that's going to be talked about next by the city, and a separate ballot.

But this ballot will have this issue on it, talking about seminary street upgrades.

So those are those that's the upgrades to the infrastructure and Campbell lot upgrades, and that's the public asset that the city will own by putting this money into it, but it will all be paid for out of these taxes that would not exist if not for this type of investment.

So this is uh growing the grand list, adding infrastructure without increasing the tax base at all.

And so we are um we have put together FAQs, frequently asked questions, and those are on the website as well, Carol, I believe.

And so if you have questions that don't get answered today, or you hear a neighbor who has questions, or you hear something that doesn't make sense to you, please feel free to go to the website, tell friends and family to go to the website, other taxpayers and voters and tell them to get their questions answered, and then there's contact information right on there if there's a specific question that hasn't been answered.

But we just want to make sure everyone has all the right information.

So we're gonna pause and take questions on this item before moving on to the garage question.

So if anyone has one.

I'll go ahead and stop my screen so I can see everybody.

All right.

Seeing no questions.

Why don't we go ahead?

I'll um give my here.

Let me make you a host.